The Chronicles of Lorrek Box Set

by Kelly Blanchard

A brilliant flash of light caught his attention, and he snapped his gaze to the edge of the screen where Roskelem fought a blond haired sorcerer. All around them stood statues, and Aden narrowed his eyes. “What are statues doing in the middle of a battlefield?” He leaned in closer then realized each statue stood in a fighting stance. “They were warriors too,” he realized then pulled back and glimpsed over the battlefield, wondering where Lorrek was—and hoping Vixen was nowhere near him.

  28

  Lorrek stepped off the shuttle with the other Hunters, and he took in his surroundings. On this side of the hill, thousands of Jechorian shuttles and drones landed in organized rows. The ships lowered their ramps, and off marched squadrons of Guardians toward the hill. They climbed up it then down into the battle in the valley on the other side.

  The shuttles carrying the Hunters had been unofficial and less organized. None of the Jechorian pilots dared engage their assassin passengers in dialogue, and none of the captains sought to come forward and give this band of killers any direction in the field. They were left to themselves, and Lorrek preferred it that way.

  Lifting his eyes to the skies, he saw multiple pillars of smoke beyond the hill ascending to the heavens and noticed how dark clouds gathered above them in the blood red sky.

  Fawn walked past him then glanced over her shoulder, as if she had said something to him, and Lorrek brought himself back to the present moment. His ears took in the sounds around them—the rumble of the shuttle engines, whizzing of the drones, shouts of commands, the rhythmic clatter of the Guardian armor as they marched, gunshots, explosions, the warriors’ charging shouts, and death cries. With all this, it was hard to hear someone directly beside him.

  “Pardon?” He shouted over the sounds of the engine as he moved away from the shuttles with Fawn.

  “I said don’t get yourself killed and be careful. The one you seek to kill is seeking you now.” She bowed her head to him then lifted her gaze and offered him a smile before magicking away.

  Lorrek watched her vanish then sensed a presence on either side of him. Glimpsing to his left, he saw Princess Gremina—her face hardened at the sight of battle—and on his right he found Prince Haskel, staring with narrowed eyes at the events unfolding before them. His two ‘bodyguards’. He looked down at them then smirked and magicked away.

  Instead of reappearing elsewhere instantly, Lorrek lingered in the magic realm and rose high above the battlefield to survey it.

  At one corner where the trees met the pasture he saw Queen Sidra with her small band of ragtag thieves, attacking the edges of the battlefield where they took down Verddra’s men and Jechorm’s drones, but they worked hard to capture alive those fighting for Roskelem. Aradin dragged one man to the queen of Serhon, and the warrior struggled against Aradin until he recognized his queen. Instantly he stopped fighting and dropped to a knee before her. “What is your command, my queen?” Lorrek heard him say, so the sorcerer shifted his attention away.

  Nearby he saw Dustal behind a tree, peeking around it every so often to shoot an arrow at any who charged at them. He shouted something over his shoulder, as if frustrated with someone, and Lorrek noticed the thief, Kedessa, behind another tree, shooting alongside Dustal, roll her eyes at him but then take aim and shoot again. Dustal exclaimed once more, and this time Lorrek heard, “Will you stop shooting my targets? You’re making me waste my arrows.”

  “Choose different targets then!” Kedessa snapped back, releasing another arrow.

  In the tree above Kedessa, Previn shook his head at their bickering then took aim with his own arrow and shot one of Verddra’s men, but some movement caught his attention, and he frowned. Narrowing his eyes, he watched the commotion among the troops until he saw what was coming straight for them. “More are heading this way!” He shouted down to his sister and Dustal. “And they have guns.”

  Kedessa and Dustal quickly hid behind their individual trees, facing each other. Even without speaking aloud, they still argued with gestured. Dustal motioned for Kedessa to stay where she was while he went out first, but Kedessa snapped her fingers at him and shook her head firmly, signaling for him to wait. Dustal gave her an exaggerated look, but she merely lifted an unimpressed brow.

  Then the enemy broke through the tree line, and Kedessa and Dustal leapt out at them, disarming them of their guns and engaging them in hand-to-hand combat.

  Disinterested in this fraction of the battle, Lorrek pulled away and skimmed over the fighting until he came across another familiar face. The assassin, Tradek, fought alongside Radim and an unfamiliar sorcerer—Gershom, magic identified him. Tradek and Radim moved with beautiful ease. Radim’s flexibility, grace, and fighting skills equated to her husband’s magical abilities as they fought the Guardians.

  Gershom, Lorrek realized, appeared distracted, fighting only halfheartedly as his attention kept shifting to a specific part of the field. Lorrek followed his gaze then found Esdras from Serhon fighting alongside the ghostly figure of Bodulf, who seemed to be enjoying himself too much in battle as he grinned and laughed, hopping from one opponent to another and snickering as they tried to fight him off, only for their hands and weapons to pass through them. This distraction gave the intensely focused Esdras the opportunity to finish them. Esdras was oblivious to Gershom’s stare but lifted his sword above his head and yelled as he charged toward another warrior.

  Lorrek frowned as he noted the resemblances between Gershom and Esdras—similar build, hair color, intensity of the face, but he brushed this aside. It was not important to him.

  He wanted to find Vixen.

  His gaze located Sirros and Nyvera. Like Tradek and Radim, they worked well together, covering each other’s weaknesses and adding to their strengths. Lorrek supposed married assassins would have to develop a complimentary fighting style in order to survive. However, they appeared to be arguing in the midst of fighting. He tuned in to hear what he might of Vixen’s whereabouts.

  “And you just let her go?!” Nyvera shot her husband a glare but then twisted around a spinning hook-kick to an approaching enemy soldier, knocking him to the ground.

  “It’s not like I had a choice!” Sirros expanded a shield above them, blocking blasts from drones overhead, and once they finished shooting, he changed the shield into pure energy and shot it back at the drones, frying all their circuits. Satisfied, he turned to his wife. “She’s very stubborn. I do believe she gets that from you.” One of Roskelem’s men came at him with an arrow drawn, but Sirros merely shook his head and flicked his fingers at the man, snapping his bow in half.

  Another man had attacked Nyvera, and she ran right for him, running up his body, then twisted around him, and slammed him to the ground. She landed on her knee, balanced with one hand on the ground, then snapped a glower up at Sirros. “You seriously wish to bring up that argument now?” She leapt to her feet and dove in Sirros’ direction, but he sidestepped and allowed her to tackle the man who had been approaching him from behind.

  Turning to watch Nyvera take him down, Sirros conjured a blue orb in his palm and waited for her to subdue the much larger man. The warrior twisted and then threw himself to the ground with her on his back, crushing Nyvera. Sirros tsked then shot the orb at the man’s chest. The warrior gasped and stared wide-eyed, but Sirros merely gave him a look. “Be respectful to the ladies—have you never heard?” With that, he flicked his wrist and cast the man aside then offered Nyvera a hand.

  As their hands locked, Sirros froze. “He’s here.”

  Nyvera frowned but used her husband’s arm as leverage to pull herself up. “Who?”

  “Lorrek.”

  At the mention of his name, Lorrek withdrew. He saw glowing tendrils of magic reaching out of Sirros’ body and feeling through the air as if to locate Lorrek. When the tendril detected his signature, Sirros’ countenance darkened. “I know you’re here!” His body morphed from the solid material world into a ghostly presence in the magical realm.

  “Sirros, don’t!�
�� Nyvera reached out to stop him, but he had already magicked.

  Having seen her distress, Wol’van ran up to her and stood in a guarded stance with his twin star-blades as Mel’Nath finished off one of Verddra’s men behind him. “What happened?”

  Nyvera motioned to the air where Sirros had disappeared. “He sensed Lorrek and went after him.”

  Wol’van frowned and looked at the empty space. He didn’t realize in a different dimension he actually looked straight at Lorrek before Lorrek withdrew deeper into the realm of magic, dragging Sirros along with him.

  Deeper and deeper they fell. The battle around them shredded into black nothingness until all that remained were the bright glows—like stars—of all the magic users in the fight.

  At last they came to a halt, floating in the nothingness. Sirros cast an uncertain look about, and Lorrek saw it and lifted his chin. “You have never been this deep within magic.”

  At the sound of his voice, Sirros snapped a glare at Lorrek then flexed his fingers, summoning his power to his hands. “I have no fear of it.” With that, he blasted Lorrek.

  On the battlefield, Guardians fought Guardians. The only way Vixen was able to distinguish between the rebels and the ordinary Guardians was due to the contacts she had received when in Jechorm. The colored outlines around them proved most helpful as she fought alongside her friends, the rebel Guardians, in this chaos—sometimes mixed with the occasional Hunter.

  Haiken blasted them back with his shield, which gave his people a moment to breathe. He shook his head. “There are too many of them.”

  “That is an understatement,” Vixen muttered to herself and then lifted her gaze to find a better place to make their stand. This hill offered little shelter, and they were being backed into a shallow cave. Her eyes kept returning to the new black castle on the opposing hill. At first she didn’t think it was feasible, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized it might be their only hope. “The castle!” She pointed at it when Haiken looked at her, confused. “We need to go there. We’ll be safe there.”

  Haiken frowned, doubtful, but readied his stance as the Guardians began to regroup. “Are you sure it is safe?”

  Vixen was taken aback by this. Of course it was safe. This was Cuskelom. Because she had married Loroth, she had been in the royal line, and no one of Cuskelom would harm her, but she didn’t have time to explain all this. She simply nodded. “Certainly. Now let’s go!”

  She turned to lead the charge to the castle, but across the battlefield she caught sight of her mother, and she also noticed Mel’Nath with her. They were having difficulties holding off Serhon’s knights and Jechorian’s machines. “Ardenn!” Vixen shouted over the noise of the ordinary Guardians attacking them. When Ardenn whipped her head around to her, Vixen pointed down to the field. “Mel’Nath!”

  All the rebel Guardians heard, and Haiken looked at Jarovit, and the other Guardian nodded then punched his opponent away with a powerful blow. He rose to his full height and fixed his eyes on the next wave of Guardians heading for them. With intense focus, he tapped into his power, and suddenly all their enemies cried out, clawing at their skulls and sinking to their knees.

  Ardenn watched, stunned, but Jarovit grabbed her by the arm snapping her out of her trance. “C’mon. We’ll get you back to him, and we can all fight together.” She didn’t have a chance to ask who ‘he’ was before Jarovit dragged her along, but she figured he meant Mel’Nath.

  She looked at Vixen in passing, who nodded and moved to fall into step with them, but she turned to the others. “Go to the castle. Tell them you fight with Vixen, and if any of them question you, I will personally kill them.”

  Haiken smirked at this but acknowledged this with a salute. “Be careful.”

  “I will.”

  He waved her away then turned his attention on the other Guardians. He hated hurting the other Guardians, but as long as they believed themselves to be non-human, there was nothing he could do.

  “Hunter!” Zoyra’s alarm caused both Haiken and Priam to spin around and instinctively activated their powers—Haiken’s shield deflected the plasma blast from Flynn’s gun, and Priam waved his hand in the air stealing Flynn’s sight, and causing him to cry out in surprise and claw at his eyes.

  “I can’t see!”

  Zoyra shared a look with Priam, and then the two of them looked to Haiken, who stared at the black castle on the horizon. When Haiken finally turned to them, he nodded and rested his rifle against his shoulder. “Zoyra, stay between the two of us. I’ll create a path through them.” He nodded to the Guardians, who had regrouped and now came at them again, and he quickly shot Priam a look. “Blind everyone who come in close contact with us. Let’s go.”

  With that, they descended on the Guardians rushing them. Haiken covered his allies with a dome shield and pushed their way through the crowd while Priam blinded those who tried to break through the shield.

  Across the way Vixen, Jarovit, and Ardenn hastened through the fighting to reach Mel’Nath and Nyvera, but as they ran, a group of Guardians ambushed them. Vixen never stopped moving but ran straight to the nearest Guardian and slammed her bladed knuckles into his armored chest.

  Beside her, Jarovit charged at a fellow Guardian with a shout, and the two exchanged punches and kicks until Jarovit narrowed his eyes and willed intense pain into the man’s head. The other Guardian cried out, clenching his head and stumbled out of the fight.

  Satisfied, Jarovit looked around to see who else he could beat up, but he noticed Ardenn had frozen while a Guardian dove for her—blades extended from his hands.

  With a shout, Jarovit tackled the Guardian and punched him in the helmet over and over and over again until he willed the pain into his fist and slammed it down upon the Guardian’s head.

  Once the man was fully unconscious—or dead, Jarovit didn’t know or care—he shot Ardenn a glare then rose to his feet. “What are you thinking?!”

  “They’re human too!” Ardenn motioned at the unmoved body at her feet. “I don’t want to kill them just because they believe a lie.”

  Jarovit snarled. “They don’t care if you’re human or not. They have orders, and they’re going to follow them even if it kills them.”

  “But I have a choice! I don’t have to fight.”

  A shout from behind warned Jarovit of another attack, and he spun around and caught the man’s flying fist. Fed up with Ardenn’s optimistic but limited understanding as to her place as a Guardian, he channeled all his frustration he had with her into this fight and pulled his fist back then slammed it with all his might into the Guardian’s helmeted face, sending him staggering back and cracking the visor.

  He then turned back to Ardenn as he pulled a grenade out of a compartment of his suit. “You may be human. I may be human. We may all be human, but this is war!” He yanked out the pin with his teeth then chucked the grenade at the Guardians. It exploded in the midst of several Guardians, but Jarovit never took his eyes off Ardenn though he noticed how distraught she seemed as she watched the grenade go off. “In war, people die. It doesn’t matter who you are or why you’re here. They want us dead!” He motioned to the drones filming overhead. “They don’t care. They don’t care.”

  Ardenn opened her mouth to protest, but a sudden blast knocked both of them off their feet. Ardenn used her training as an agile thief to onto roll back to her feet but stayed low with a hand on the ground. She looked back at Jarovit, expecting him to be up already and fighting, but instead she was surprised to find Jarovit still on the ground. Above him stood another Guardian, who held his hand outstretched to Jarovit, as if holding him down. He struggled against it, but it was as if a great weight were on him, and he was unable to lift it.

  Her suit identified the Guardian over Jarovit as Drathic, who had telekinesis abilities. Realizing what this could mean, she shook her head as she rose to her feet. “Jar—”

  “Stay back!” Jarovit ordered her—his attention solely focused o
n Drathic as he tried to find a way to free even a finger to launch a mini-missile from his wrist at the Guardian.

  A yell caught Drathic’s attention, and he tore his gaze off Jarovit and looked across the way in time to barely register Vixen tackling him. A warning went off in his helmet as she dug her bladed knuckles between the joints of his neck.

  “He’s mine!” Jarovit shot to his feet and dove for Drathic.

  Vixen jumped out of the way and watched Jarovit pummel Drathic with shots and punches. Once satisfied with how he handled the situation, Vixen set her eyes on Ardenn and ran to her, helping her to her feet. “Come. We should go to Mel’Nath.”

  Ardenn wasn’t listening to her. She let Vixen begin to guide her away from the fight, but she looked past her to the two Guardians fighting. Her eyes widened when Drathic yanked Jarovit’s gun out of his hands, turned it on him, and fired at him again and again and again. “No!” Ardenn shoved past Vixen and raced to her fallen friend.

  Stunned, Vixen let her go. Her eyes locked on Jarovit falling to the ground. And then she looked up at Drathic, who set his focus on Ardenn. Narrowing her eyes, Vixen tightened her fists, gripping her bladed knuckles harder. She needed to protect Ardenn at all costs and return her to her mother. She refused to fail Ceras now.

  Setting her jaw with determination, Vixen started for Ardenn and Drathic before she was knocked off her feet by a sudden blast of magic. Before she could get up, her father appeared in front of her—his face etched with worry. “Go! Get out of here now! I can only keep him busy for so long.”

  Just as Vixen opened her mouth to ask what he meant, Lorrek materialized behind her father, and she widened her eyes.

  Sirros saw this and spun around, unleashing a strange tendril of magic at Lorrek, which wrapped around Lorrek’s non-solid form, causing him to howl in unspeakable pain.

  “Hey!” Bodulf magicked between Lorrek and Sirros and stared down Vixen’s father. “Stop—now.”